Leyla Yenirce

Using oil paint, acrylic spray paint, and silkscreen ink on canvas, the painting Water includes printed motifs depicting blueprints of F-16 fighter jets used extensively by the Turkish military to maintain control over Kurdish-populated regions.

The thread from above is echoed by destruction from below: the area where the artist was born was submerged due to the controversial Ilisu Dam project, built and completed by Turkey in 2018. The dam has flooded about 200 villages, as rising water levels overflow the banks of the Tigris River and submerge regions where people have lived for millennia. The devastating impact on cultural heritage is accompanied by a reduction of water flow towards Iraq, where, in turn, water levels have dropped drastically.

The black-and-white print in the middle of the painting shows a detail taken from an image in which a Kurdish female fighter is reading a book next to a table with electronic devices and a water bottle. What reveals itself as an ordinary object is in fact a scarce resource and a subject of war, geopolitical control, and mass destruction.